[crabapple]

I'm not sure how to answer this question. But I definitely notice that my tastes in horror have changed over the years--as I get older, I like the really disturbing, realistic, gruesome horror films much less, and I tend to gravitate towards enjoyably cheesy monster movies and things with a pronounced "fantasy" element. This is pretty easy to figure out...the older one gets and the more things one sees, the more one acquires an understanding that mortality is a real thing. When I was 16, I watched all the blood and guts movies in the world and it didn't bother me. Now, I tend not to watch that sort of thing very much.

I do think that horror with a heavy fantasy element can be very appealing because it allows the viewer to dramatize the trouble and trauma of real life within a somewhat softer, friendlier perspective. A part of your mind watches a Dracula film and thinks, "Ah...this is horror, so I'm confronting life and death issues. I imagine I'm honest with myself and this makes me feel brave and invigorated." And another part of your mind thinks, "Jeez, thank goodness vampires can be killed with a stake to the heart, because the thought of that comforts me."

In short, this sort of movie allows you to confront these issues philosophically, and it only gets as unpleasant as you would like it to get.